Organising and Delivering Social Services

Abstract

We should be sceptical of the argument that the history of the organisation of the social services is one of fairly unimpeded development. Jane Lewis rejects the traditional view that welfare services have moved straightforwardly from the dark ages of the Poor Law to the enlightenment of Beveridge’s plans in 1942. She questions the simplistic assumption that the state took on more responsibilities as individualism was replaced by collectivism, as though this inevitably culminated in the wave of legislation in the 1940s which established the welfare state (Lewis, 1999, p. 249).